1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camouflaged article with overmolded areas, and more particularly to an article formed from a molded plastic insert with overmolded portions. Herein the word “camouflage,” sometimes referred to as “camo,” is defined as any finish, typically, but not necessarily, patterned, that is applied to an article that is then overmolded.
2. Background Information
Typically camouflaged articles include: gun stocks, pistol grips, bows, crossbows, is other archery and hunting equipment, paint ball equipment, personal locating devices and other such outdoor equipment. For example, all terrain vehicles may have a number of molded plastic pieces that might be camouflaged. Fenders, bumpers, outer bodies and gas tanks are often made of plastic, camouflaged and overmolded. Such items may benefit from the present invention. The camouflage, as the name implies, may be used to obscure or hide the presence or the identity of the article possessed by the user. However, camouflage, other patterns, scenes and/or colors, etc. may be a decorative device applied as a layer to overmolded articles.
Gun stocks, particularly long gun stocks and other hunting equipment, are often camouflaged, and much of the following discussion relates to gun stocks, but the present application, as mentioned above, applies to any camouflaged or layered overmolded article.
Long gun stocks are often overmolded and camouflaged as desired by hunters. The overmolding provides a comfortable gripping surface and a look that is desirable to users. Overmolding is known in the art, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,817 ('817), filed Nov. 14, 1996, issued Oct. 16, 2001 to Hogue, describes processes for applying overmold material to a base gun stock insert. This U.S. patent is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Referencing FIG. 1 and the '817 patent, overmold material 4 is applied directly to portions of or substantially the entire stock insert 10. Typically a shallow depression 9 is formed in the insert 10 and a matching one (not shown) in the final injection mold used to apply the overmold material. A camouflage layer 5 is applied to the areas not covered by is the overmold 4. The result are edges 7 where the camouflage ends and the overmold begins. See FIG. 7 of the '817 patent where, item 32, the overmold material, is directly applied to the stock insert 1 and FIG. 13 of the '817 patent shows areas 44 and 43 where overmold material is applied to portions of the insert. The last sentence in the '817 Abstract reads, “The thermoplastic elastomer over-molded material is compatible with the material of the insert and bonds both mechanically and chemically with the insert, providing the stock with a soft, quiet, non-slip surface.”
In the prior art, camouflage is applied to a long gun stock after the overmolding, since the prior art overmolding materials do not adhere, either mechanically or chemically, well to the camouflage materials. In particular, the gun stock is molded of thermoplastic material to which the thermoplastic elastomer overmold material easily bonds. However, the outer layer of a camouflage process is typically polyurethane to which the prior art thermoplastic elastomer overmold material does not bond well. Thus, overmolding is applied before camouflage to a long gun stock insert.
Therefore, in the prior art, to apply camouflage, the overmolded areas are typically masked and unmasked by hand and then the camouflage is applied to the exposed un-overmolded surface areas. However, the edges, item 7 of FIG. 1, where the overmolding and the camouflage meet, are often not sharp or well defined. Moreover, there may be exposed areas with no camouflage near the edge 7. In addition, the masking and unmasking are labor intensive, time consuming, costly and require skilled workers.
For a prior art description for applying camouflage to gunstocks, see www.immersiongraphics.com, and www.tarjac.com.
Camouflaging the article after overmolding is not done since the camouflage materials adversely affect the non-slip, tactile, overmold surface. Moreover, it may damage the overmold material, and since the overmold material is typically soft, with use, a camouflage layer on the overmold material may crack, becoming unsightly or unusable.
The present invention addresses many of the limitations of the prior art.